[Travel] Ipoh - Zichar 煮炒 at Sun Tuck Kee 新德记

What other things to eat in Ipoh besides the famed beansprouts chicken, ipoh gai see hor fun or dim sums? Well, we went to check out their zichar and the only place with some hope for a seat (it was drizzling that night) was Sun Tuck Kee. Everyone else seemed too crowded. The photo of the shopfront below was taken on another day when they were less crowded.

restaurant facade

Waited for about 15 minutes before we got a table and another 15 minutes before anyone came to take order. Yes, they were super busy and my dad was getting grumpier by the minute.

menu

Ordered three noodles as mains and 3 side dishes. There's baby octopus that's pretty chewy and good with the chili dip otherwise, not much taste. The braised chicken feet was good and falls off the bones but skinny. Meatballs soup were good. These took forever to come actually.

side dishes of boiled baby octopus (@RM17), chicken feet (@RM7) and meatballs soup (@RM1.10 per piece)

We were still hungry by the time the noodles came.

Hokkien Noodles @RM17

Fried Tang Hoon @RM13

The Hokkien noodles were well fried and tasty but the sambal was a letdown. Fried Tang Hoon was surprisingly good and one of the better dish that night. Awesome flavour for this rustic looking dish.

Next, was the wat dan hor which warranted a double-take. Why? Because it's the first time I'm seeing this dish served in a large soup bowl. I was like, did we order soup? Hahahaa, the noodles were all drowning in the gravy!

滑蛋河 Ipoh style

yes, correct.. this is 滑蛋河

Actually, the wat dan hor was nice. The hot gravy was flavourful and tasty (from msg maybe?) and made it more satisfying for us who were really hungry at that time.

where has all the gravy gone to?

Overall, the food is good and reasonably priced.

Sun Tuck Kee 新德记

Address: 65, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Pusat Bandaraya Ipoh 30300
Contact: +60 12 514 2228
Business Hours:
Daily:12:00pm - 03:30am

[Travel] Ipoh - Where to eat Bean Sprouts Chicken (芽菜鸡) and Best Ipoh Hor Fun (鸡丝河粉)

There are tons of write-ups on where to go for 芽菜鸡 aka taugeh chicken (beansprouts chicken) and Lou Wong would be frequently mentioned as the spot for tourists. Well, we headed towards that direction anyways and decided to try Ong Kee (安记芽菜鸡) which is like beside Lou Wong. Similarly, Ong Kee has a big shop and busy with tourists. We sat alfresco, and the service staff will bring you the menu (has photos of the dish and prices).

shop front

menu

You have the option to choose either rice or sar hor fun (沙河粉).  My advice is, go for the sar hor fun because the soup was so darn tasty and it would make a good base for the gai see hor fun (thin flat noodles with chicken shreds). Of course, we didn't know because we were first-timers, and all of us ordered rice.

Bun Tong Bean Sprouts (文冬豆芽) @RM12 for large

Farm Chicken (whole) 菜园鸡 @RM66

must have chili

rice

super tasty chicken soup

The sprouts was really good and refreshing. It came as a mountain on a plate but we finished 'em all. All us 7 adults. The farm chicken was lean but not too chewy. The soy sauce on it was good. Slightly sweet savoury. Rice was cooked with ginger and garlic and not too oily.

Just beware of the streetside vendor who goes from tables to tables. She sold me an overpriced packet of biscuit which I later found out, was also available at the biscuit shops around that area.

night fall

Ong Kee Bean Sprouts Chicken Restaurant

Address: 48, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Taman Jubilee, 30300 Ipoh, Negeri Perak, Malaysia
Contact: +60 5-253 1562
Business Hours:
Daily: 10.30am to 2am


Next, we sampled the best gai see hor fun at Thean Chun Coffeeshop but the wait was super long. At least 15 to 25 minutes to wait for a table and another 45 minutes for the noodles. That is considering we went after 1.30pm.

Thean Chun Coffeeshop

the famous stall for 鸡丝河粉

First, be warned that the coffeeshop is kinda old and dingy looking. Definitely crowded and we stood behind some tables to wait for our turn (like food-court!) and in-turn, sometimes got scolded by the stall assistants for blocking their way. And, often times, the table will have like a few that are already done with their lunch and one who was still waiting for the hor fun. So those are no-go as well.

Not easy when you're in a group of 7 pax and wants to eat at a crowded coffee shop. Finally, we got our table and since we had to wait 45 minutes for the hor fun, we went and ordered chee cheong fun and satay while waiting.

chee cheong fun and satay stall

Most of the stall owners are above 50 years old. So you'll get to taste authentic and old school recipe for the dish.

chee cheong fun

Old school chee cheong fun does not have the additional yong tau foo items as other places in Malaysia, and is served simply with pickled green chili, some shallots and good drizzle of the sauces. My mom says this was what chee cheong fun tasted like when she was growing up.

The satay stall had run out of the innards and only remained a few sticks of pork satay. So we had a mix of chicken and pork satay.

pork and chicken satay with peanut sauce

pork satay

Satay was good and the peanut sauce was thick and chunky. Not that spicy though.

Finally, the wait was over and we were served the hor fun. My first impression was...how come the soup got so many bubbles one? Putting that aside, the soup was flavourful and the hor fun was slightly soft. Loaded with lots of shredded boiled chicken meat and there were some prawns too.

鸡丝河 Chicken Shred Hor Fun Soup

close-up view of the noodles

After Thean Chun, we tried other gai see hor fun at other coffeeshops, but their soup couldn't match up with the stall at Thean Chun (maybe the Ong Kee tauge chicken one can).

Would I want to wait another 45 minutes for a bowl of gai see hor fun again? Well, if you have not tried Thean Chun's version, will recommend to try at least once.

Restoran Thean Chun 天津茶室

Address: 73, Jalan Bandar Timah, 31650 Ipoh, Negeri Perak, Malaysia
Contact: +60 5-255 3076
Business Hours:
Fri to Wed: 8am to 3pm
Closed on Thurs

[Travel] Ipoh - 玉福满点心楼 Yoke Fook Moon Dim Sum Restaurant

Tried this restaurant that's nearby Foh San. Walk-able distance from Ipoh Downtown Hotel. Went there seven early eight early (七早八早) at about 8.30am and the place was rather quiet with just a few tables taken. First impression was that the restaurant had a slightly stale musty smell.

entrance

interior

Its interior was well-kept and has clean bathroom too. Service staff are probably in their late thirties and some even older.

There are signs everywhere that informed customers to top-up their own hot water (for the tea) but since they are not busy, the service staff did it for us. They were rather friendly too. Near the cashier counter, they have a dedicated space for take-outs.

menu

takeaway counter

To order, you could inform the staff whatever that you'd be interested in having, or have them bring out the trays of goodies for you to choose at the table. Not trolley service but close. Having dim sum should have these kind of feels. The price range for the dim sum is between RM2.70 to RM11.30 (~SGD0.95 to SGD3.90). For tourists, the prices are pretty reasonable.

order chit

Ordered up a pot of "bou-lei tea" which is pu-erh tea (普洱茶) in Cantonese.

drink tea, eat dim sum

Let's see what we had for breakfast that fed a party of 7-pax. Started with the usual orders of har gao (蝦餃) and siew mai (烧卖), of course.

siew mai, har gao and more

siew mai (烧卖) close-up view

芋角 woo kok (fried taro puff) 

fish balls, chicken feet, beancurd skin and cheong fun

Another must order for us, is the porridge. They have century egg porridge with peanuts and it was gooey and tasty. 

yummy porridge

Hence, we ordered up a steamed pork bun (大包). Whoa, we were impressed by its size when it was brought out. It's like 4 to 5 times the size of the big bao version that we get in SG. Wow! Not only that it was big in size, it was also big in flavour too! Moist, loaded with well marinated meat of pork and chicken, shitake mushroom and that quintessential hard boil egg. Oh, did I mention that the bao skin was fluffy with slight chewiness too? Yums!

look at the size!

大包 that's bigger than my hand @RM10.20

loaded with pork slices, chicken, mushroom and hard boiled egg

Also ordered their special item, which is the fish paste noodles in pepper soup. No idea what it was but it is priced at RM11.30 for an individual portion.

'fish noodles' soup @RM11.30

The noodles are made of fish paste, so essentially we are chomping down on fish paste noodles. The soup has a peppery taste to it and loaded with pig's stomach. Nice tummy warmer on a cold morning.

Overall, we enjoyed the food and service from Yoke Fook Moon. Must order the big bao!

Yoke Fook Moon 玉福满

Address: 65-69, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, 30300 Ipoh, Negeri Perak, Malaysia

Contact: +60 5-241 6589

Business Hours:

Daily: 6am–1:30pm, 6:30–10pm

Exploring Ipoh at a Relaxed Pace - Kajang to Ipoh | Ipoh Downtown Hotel | Hua Nam Coffeeshop

Was my first time in Ipoh and my sis booked us a room at Ipoh Downtown Hotel. We travelled from Kajang to Ipoh Station via ETS train. Journey was about 3.5 hours from Kajang Station. Think it was less than SGD30 for a return ticket.

arrived - Ipoh Train Station

ETS Route

Reached Ipoh Station at about 1pm. The station was constructed in 1894 and it has a nice exterior painted in white. From there, one could take a taxi or Grab to downtown. If you intend to get Grab, most of the grab cars are not that big and could possibly fit at most 2 luggages of 23-24" in its boot. We had 7 adults with us, thus it took us 3 vehicles to transport all of us and our bags to the hotel.

Ipoh Train Station

It was just a 10 minutes ride from the train station to Ipoh Downtown Hotel. This hotel is located near "Tong Shui Kai" (糖水街) or also known as "Dessert Street".

Ipoh Downtown Hotel

hotel sign

hotel lobby

We were given rooms at Level 5. There's a small sundry shop at the hotel lobby where you could get instant noodles, chips, bread, or ice-cream but with a higher than market price. Good for rainy days where you don't want to walk out but there's a convenience store just a few steps away from the hotel.

hotel room with 2 double beds

view from room

minibar with complimentary drinks

instant coffee

complimentary bottled water

bathroom

bathroom supplies

After checking-in, it was about way past lunch time so we decided to try the nearby coffeeshop. We went to Hua Nam Coffeeshop.

Hua Nam @ Jalan Leong Sin Nam

fried noodles stall

char kway teow  with cockles @RM5.50

cockles 螄蚶

The char kway teow was good. Savoury, well-fried and had a hint of wok-hei. The cockles (seahum) was of a decent size. On another day, I tried their "Kap Dai" (及底) noodles and it was essentially just fried noodles. Preferred the char kway teow over that anytime!

Kap Dai" (及底) @RM6

Also tried the curry mee but think there was a mis-commucation. Ordered a bowl with additional roast pork, and when it came, there was no other ingredients in the bowl except roast pork! Hahaa.

roast pork curry mee @RM6

roast pork curry noodles

My dad ordered the "lam mee" (淋面) from the Penang Noodles stall. Hmm, no particular liking for this dish as I still prefer the lor mee back in Singapore.

Lam Mee (淋面)

The iced coffee from this coffeeshop is pretty good. Not too acidic, strong coffee and milk that's not too overpowering. They also have a plum drink which they soak the plum in a large container to steep out the flavours.

iced coffee

housemade preserved plum drink @RM2.60

Also tried fruits rojak at the coffeeshop, and it was good too. Just that the turnip slices was a tad tough. Other than that, the rest were ok. Tasty.

rojak

The caramel custard from the coffeeshop was not bad but it wasn't made in-house. They got it via a supplier. First one that I had, it disintegrated rather quickly as the custard had not solidify enough. Informed the lady-boss and she changed another one for me.

caramel egg custard

Kedai Minuman & Makanan Hua Nam 華南白咖啡茶室

Address: 45, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, Kampung Jawa, 30300 Ipoh, Negeri Perak, Malaysia